Indirect tax kitty swells to Rs 10,302 cr in Nagpur Zone

Source: The Hitavada Date: 19 Apr 2017 09:49:57

Business Bureau,

THE indirect tax kitty in Nagpur Zone swelled by over 22 per cent over the last year to Rs 10,302 crore. The Customs, Central Excise and Service Tax Department, Nagpur Zone covers Aurangabad, Nashik and Nagpur. The Department collected Customs Duty to the tune of Rs 875 crore during the financial year 2016-2017. During the same period, it collected Central Excise worth Rs 6,098 crore and Service Tax worth Rs 3,329 crore. The Nagpur Zone exceeded the national collection figure in Service Tax and Central Excise mop-up.

Ashok Kumar Pandey, Chief Commissioner of Customs, Central Excise and Service Tax Department, Nagpur Zone was talking to The Hitavada on Tuesday at the sidelines of the inauguration of the GST Camp organised by the ICAI, Nagpur Branch in consultation with the Chief Commissioner of Customs, Central Excise and Service Tax Department, Nagpur Zone. The camp will be operational from April 17 to 19, to address the issues with regard to GST migration and also to extend all possible help. The camp will be open for public from 10.30 am to 5.30 pm at ICAI Bhavan, Dhantoli.

Later talking to the media, Pandey said that hitherto indirect tax was collected from three sectors -- manufacturers, dealers and service providers. The VAT Department and the Central Board of Customs and Excise (CBCE) used to collect taxes from manufacturers and dealers while Service Tax was collected by CBCE. “Now, all these three sectors will be merged and governed by the Goods and Services Tax (GST) which is scheduled to be implemented from July 1, 2017,” he said.

In the new regime of taxation, i.e. GST, registration would be mandatory. The dealers, who had already been registered in VAT and Central Excise, need not have to go for another new registration. They would be automatically enrolled in GST. About 75 per cent of the work had been done by the VAT Department. The manufacturers, who had not enrolled with GST, have to get the registration and complete the migration process. “They will get provisional application reference number (ARN) and when the GST will be introduced, they will get permanent GST number,” he said.

It takes three minutes for enrolment and 30 minutes for migration. In the Nagpur Commissionerate, 2,000 assessees are yet to be enrolled. Of the 12,000 Service Tax assessees, 9,000 had already been enrolled. Of the 9,000, the migration process of 2,500 assessees had already been completed. In Central Excise, 50 per cent assessees had been enrolled.

He said that for hassle-free migration towards the GST regime, the Government had already introduced six rules and three rules would be shortly introduced. In the GST, there would be less interface between traders and tax collectors as everything would be on-line. Pandey said that in the new GST regime, chartered accountants had to play a big role as an important link between the assessees and the Department.

“We have a lot of expectations from chartered accountants and by organising such migration camps, the workload of the Department will be reduced to a larger extent,” he claimed. CA Sandip Jotwani, Chairman of ICAI, Nagpur Branch said that the GST has opened a large room for professionals to render their services towards the society. “We have been given a bigger responsibility and we will always be in touch with the Department,” he said.